Rene Descartes is concidered by many to be the father of modern Wester thought and philosophy. He has not only published many great philosophical documents, books, and essays- but he has also made great strides in the fields of geometry and algebra. He was a very accomplished philosopher and a lover of mathematical inquiry. He lived a shorter life than most, and died a slow and rather paiful death. However, even in death, his philosophical ideas, questions, and findings still serve us today.
Biography
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher who is often referred to as the "father of modern thought and philosophy". He was born in the town of La Haye en Touraine, which in now called the Town of Descartes in modern-day France, named after the great philosophical mind who was born in it (duh). His mother, Jeanne Brochard, passed away when he was only a year old, and was left in the care of his father. When young Rene was only the ripe old age of eight, his father, who was a nobleman, enrolled his son into the Jessuit College Royal Henry-La-Grand in a county a few counties over from his own. He studied Greek and Latin, as well as mathematics (which he would greatly improve in his later life) and Scholastic philosophy at this Catholic school.
After Descartes graduated from Jessuit College in 1614, he went to attend the University of Poitiers, in France. He left the university after receiving a Baccalaureat in Law. He did so in accordance to what his father wished him to do with his life: becoming a lawyer. Descartes, after leaving in 1618- and also disappointing his father by not becoming a lawyer, went to attend the College of War of Maurice of Nassau in what was then the Dutch Republic. .
For the next four years of his life, Descartes served as a soldier to the armies of Maurice of Nassau of the Netherlands, and Maximilian of Bavaria. He became a soldier for one soul purpose: to tour the world, "see the sights", and meet the people of different countries. He was sent, along with many others, to the town of Breda, in Holland. It was there, while walking around the town near the main road, that he met the man who peaked his interests in mathematics and possibly changed his future life forever- Isaac Beeckman. It is said that during his years as a soldier, he said that, "I have come to the conclusion that the only subject that has any value at all would be mathematics." He held that view for the rest of his life.
Beeckman had soon become a friend of Descartes, and convinced him to pursue the life of an intellectual- instead of that of a soldier. Descartes would have to wait another year before he could return home from his tour of duty to do so. He was then sent on another trip to the see the coronation of Ferdinand II in Frankfurt that year, but was snowed in in the little town of Neuburg, in Germany. It was here, in the small town of Neuburg, that Descartes had three dreams- of which were possibly the soul factor that changed his life- and the whole of Western philosophy- forever.
His first two dreams were of snowstorms and and sheltering, and of thunder claps and fire. His third dream was of him awaking in his bedroom, with an anthology of poems, an encyclopedia, and a number of literary works. He was then convinced, after his third dream- which he believed was put in his mind by God, that he convinced himself to ditch soldiering, and become a man of science, philosophy, and math.
He left the military, and continued to travel all over Europe for the next four years of his life, and settled in Paris in 1623. He stayed for four years (what is with this guy and four years) and then moved to the Netherlands and settled in 1628. He stayed in the Netherlands for the rest of his productive life. He married one of his servants that he fell in love with earlier in his life, and had a single child, Francine. She died at the age of five, due to the scarlet fever. This affected Rene severly, and he vowed never to have another child. It was then that he began to publish some of his most famous works and essays.
He died of pnuemonia at the age of 54 in Sweden, on a visit with Queen Christina of Sweden (in the land of bears, rocks, and ice).
Major Works
The World (1633)
Discourse on Method (1637)
Geometry (1637)
Mediations (1643)
Principles of Philosophy (1644)
The Description of the Human Body (1647)
Passions of the Soul (1649)
Philosophy
Descartes is considered the father of what is modern philosophy. His philosophy and concern with being certain and concrete with the world around us. He was a French rationalist- this meaning that he believed that the ultimate knowledge could be ascertained by one's reason and ability to think, and he was from France. (teehee)
His major goal was to "clear all of the rubble off of the site" as it is said by many. He wanted to break everything we know into the simplest and smallest forms as possible. He wished to start from scratch, and work his way from the simple, concrete, and absolute, to the complex. When he began to divide things into smaller things, he saw that it was increasingly difficult to divide things up.
He began to question many of the ideas many held to be true, or started to be skeptical, especially those of nature and the universe (called Cartesian skepticism). He wanted to beat skepticism universally, and found it increasingly hard to find something that he could have a solid base or foundation that he could build off of, and have an absolute cerainty that the base would hold. He came to the conclusion, and is quoted for saying that the only thing that he was certain of was the he existed. The phrase "Cogito ergo sum", which literally translates into "I think, therefore, I am" was published in his famous work Discourse on Method. He was sure that since he himself was capable of sentience and cognitive thought, he was bound to exist in all essences and in all cases at all times. After this cornerstone, he began to find other absolute cases in the world- especially in mathematics.
It's not a surprise that Descartes, like most philosophers, was a mathematician as well. He discovered the likes of mathematics- especially geometry- while he was at Jessuit, and expressed not only his love for it, but also his ideas about it, in his essay Geometry. He loved geometry for the sheer fact that it was just full of absolutes and of certainty. After his proof of existence, or his Cogito, he fell back into the arms of his beloved geometry again, and came out with even more solid grounds to base his thought off of. Such rules as that a triangle has three sides, or a right angle is always ninety degrees, or even that the angles of a quadrelateral always add up to three hundred-sixty degrees.
As you can see, the philosophy of Descartes was obsessed with simplicity and absoluteness.
Dualism
Another thing that Descartes is famous for is his Dualism. He believed that everything in existince is made up of two parts: thought and extension. Thought, or the mind, takes up no room, and doesn't use any space in the world. Also, it can't be divided into smaller parts, because it doesn't materialisitically exist. Extension, or matter, on the other hand, does use room and take up space in the universe. This means, Descartes believed, that it can be continually divided and separated into smaller and smaller pieces (he really liked to divide).
As one of religious faith, Descartes combined his philosophy with the likes of God, and did so in his Dualism. He not only proved that because we have an innate idea of God and that there must be a supreme being that is absolute and in everything, (and exist without help) God must exist, he also connected his parts of life with the likes of God. Rene believed that both thought and extension originate from the God. His thought has a direct connection with that of God, and is completely independent with the likes of matter. To put it the other way around, matter and its processes are completely and utterly independent with that of thought.
He believed that only man has the capability of thought, and has an extended body. His thought was that as long as the mind was in the body, there must be a place where they both interact with one another (here he is trying to break it down into the concrete and absolute again). He concluded that in the pineal gland of the brain, and that that was where all the interactions between thought and extension occur.
Also, he thought that man was the only living thing capable of the interaction between thought and extension. Descartes once said that," Man has a perfect body, and a perfect mind. When both things are put together, there is nothing superior- except that of God." He believed that sometimes your thoughts do have an affect on your body and its actions, and vice-versa, your actions and body does have effects on your thoughts. In Jostein Gaarder's Sophies World, the example is given about running for the bus. You are late, and you see the bus pull away- so you start to chase after it. You end up not reaching the bus in time, miss it, and cosequently start to cry. Here, your mind had an affect on you to run for the bus, and your bodily extension had an affect on your mind to cry and feel those emotions upon missing it.
Quotations Attributed to Descartes
"Cogito ergo sum." (I think, therefore, i am.)
"An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?"
"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
"Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterward to solve other problems."
"Everything is self-evident. "
"I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake."
"It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."
"Perfect numbers, like perfect men, are hard to find. "
"Few people have sufficiently prepaired themselves for all the contingencies of life."
Interesting Facts About Descartes
Descartes came up with the coordinate plane of geometry- that's why it's called the Cartesian coordinate system.
He came up with the plane by watching a fly walk across a tiled ceiling.
He married a fifteen-year-old servant girl, and had a child two years later.
Descartes had his small toe bitten completely off by a cat when he was four years old.
There is an entire branch of geometry dedicated to him- it's called Analytic geometry- or Cartesian geometry (I wonder why...)
He invented superscripts.
Descartes is believed to be the first person to have discovered reflection, and the first to publish about refraction.
Steven Hawking was influened by Rene Desartes to be an applied mathematician.
He is the only man cooler than Chuck Norris (teehee)
Introduction
Rene Descartes is concidered by many to be the father of modern Wester thought and philosophy. He has not only published many great philosophical documents, books, and essays- but he has also made great strides in the fields of geometry and algebra. He was a very accomplished philosopher and a lover of mathematical inquiry. He lived a shorter life than most, and died a slow and rather paiful death. However, even in death, his philosophical ideas, questions, and findings still serve us today.
Biography
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher who is often referred to as the "father of modern thought and philosophy". He was born in the town of La Haye en Touraine, which in now called the Town of Descartes in modern-day France, named after the great philosophical mind who was born in it (duh). His mother, Jeanne Brochard, passed away when he was only a year old, and was left in the care of his father. When young Rene was only the ripe old age of eight, his father, who was a nobleman, enrolled his son into the Jessuit College Royal Henry-La-Grand in a county a few counties over from his own. He studied Greek and Latin, as well as mathematics (which he would greatly improve in his later life) and Scholastic philosophy at this Catholic school.
After Descartes graduated from Jessuit College in 1614, he went to attend the University of Poitiers, in France. He left the university after receiving a Baccalaureat in Law. He did so in accordance to what his father wished him to do with his life: becoming a lawyer. Descartes, after leaving in 1618- and also disappointing his father by not becoming a lawyer, went to attend the College of War of Maurice of Nassau in what was then the Dutch Republic. .
For the next four years of his life, Descartes served as a soldier to the armies of Maurice of Nassau of the Netherlands, and Maximilian of Bavaria. He became a soldier for one soul purpose: to tour the world, "see the sights", and meet the people of different countries. He was sent, along with many others, to the town of Breda, in Holland. It was there, while walking around the town near the main road, that he met the man who peaked his interests in mathematics and possibly changed his future life forever- Isaac Beeckman. It is said that during his years as a soldier, he said that, "I have come to the conclusion that the only subject that has any value at all would be mathematics." He held that view for the rest of his life.
Beeckman had soon become a friend of Descartes, and convinced him to pursue the life of an intellectual- instead of that of a soldier. Descartes would have to wait another year before he could return home from his tour of duty to do so. He was then sent on another trip to the see the coronation of Ferdinand II in Frankfurt that year, but was snowed in in the little town of Neuburg, in Germany. It was here, in the small town of Neuburg, that Descartes had three dreams- of which were possibly the soul factor that changed his life- and the whole of Western philosophy- forever.
His first two dreams were of snowstorms and and sheltering, and of thunder claps and fire. His third dream was of him awaking in his bedroom, with an anthology of poems, an encyclopedia, and a number of literary works. He was then convinced, after his third dream- which he believed was put in his mind by God, that he convinced himself to ditch soldiering, and become a man of science, philosophy, and math.
He left the military, and continued to travel all over Europe for the next four years of his life, and settled in Paris in 1623. He stayed for four years (what is with this guy and four years) and then moved to the Netherlands and settled in 1628. He stayed in the Netherlands for the rest of his productive life. He married one of his servants that he fell in love with earlier in his life, and had a single child, Francine. She died at the age of five, due to the scarlet fever. This affected Rene severly, and he vowed never to have another child. It was then that he began to publish some of his most famous works and essays.
He died of pnuemonia at the age of 54 in Sweden, on a visit with Queen Christina of Sweden (in the land of bears, rocks, and ice).
Major Works
Philosophy
Descartes is considered the father of what is modern philosophy. His philosophy and concern with being certain and concrete with the world around us. He was a French rationalist- this meaning that he believed that the ultimate knowledge could be ascertained by one's reason and ability to think, and he was from France. (teehee)
His major goal was to "clear all of the rubble off of the site" as it is said by many. He wanted to break everything we know into the simplest and smallest forms as possible. He wished to start from scratch, and work his way from the simple, concrete, and absolute, to the complex. When he began to divide things into smaller things, he saw that it was increasingly difficult to divide things up.
He began to question many of the ideas many held to be true, or started to be skeptical, especially those of nature and the universe (called Cartesian skepticism). He wanted to beat skepticism universally, and found it increasingly hard to find something that he could have a solid base or foundation that he could build off of, and have an absolute cerainty that the base would hold. He came to the conclusion, and is quoted for saying that the only thing that he was certain of was the he existed. The phrase "Cogito ergo sum", which literally translates into "I think, therefore, I am" was published in his famous work Discourse on Method. He was sure that since he himself was capable of sentience and cognitive thought, he was bound to exist in all essences and in all cases at all times. After this cornerstone, he began to find other absolute cases in the world- especially in mathematics.
It's not a surprise that Descartes, like most philosophers, was a mathematician as well. He discovered the likes of mathematics- especially geometry- while he was at Jessuit, and expressed not only his love for it, but also his ideas about it, in his essay Geometry. He loved geometry for the sheer fact that it was just full of absolutes and of certainty. After his proof of existence, or his Cogito, he fell back into the arms of his beloved geometry again, and came out with even more solid grounds to base his thought off of. Such rules as that a triangle has three sides, or a right angle is always ninety degrees, or even that the angles of a quadrelateral always add up to three hundred-sixty degrees.
As you can see, the philosophy of Descartes was obsessed with simplicity and absoluteness.
Dualism
Another thing that Descartes is famous for is his Dualism. He believed that everything in existince is made up of two parts: thought and extension. Thought, or the mind, takes up no room, and doesn't use any space in the world. Also, it can't be divided into smaller parts, because it doesn't materialisitically exist. Extension, or matter, on the other hand, does use room and take up space in the universe. This means, Descartes believed, that it can be continually divided and separated into smaller and smaller pieces (he really liked to divide).As one of religious faith, Descartes combined his philosophy with the likes of God, and did so in his Dualism. He not only proved that because we have an innate idea of God and that there must be a supreme being that is absolute and in everything, (and exist without help) God must exist, he also connected his parts of life with the likes of God. Rene believed that both thought and extension originate from the God. His thought has a direct connection with that of God, and is completely independent with the likes of matter. To put it the other way around, matter and its processes are completely and utterly independent with that of thought.
He believed that only man has the capability of thought, and has an extended body. His thought was that as long as the mind was in the body, there must be a place where they both interact with one another (here he is trying to break it down into the concrete and absolute again). He concluded that in the pineal gland of the brain, and that that was where all the interactions between thought and extension occur.
Also, he thought that man was the only living thing capable of the interaction between thought and extension. Descartes once said that," Man has a perfect body, and a perfect mind. When both things are put together, there is nothing superior- except that of God." He believed that sometimes your thoughts do have an affect on your body and its actions, and vice-versa, your actions and body does have effects on your thoughts. In Jostein Gaarder's Sophies World, the example is given about running for the bus. You are late, and you see the bus pull away- so you start to chase after it. You end up not reaching the bus in time, miss it, and cosequently start to cry. Here, your mind had an affect on you to run for the bus, and your bodily extension had an affect on your mind to cry and feel those emotions upon missing it.
Quotations Attributed to Descartes
Interesting Facts About Descartes
Bibliography
-Gaarder, Jostein and Moller, Paulette. Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy. New York : Berkley Books, 1996, ©1994.
-Robinson, Dave, and Garrat, Chris. Introducing Descartes. London: Icon, 2010. Print.
-Honderich, Ted. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.
-"René Descartes." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes>.
-"Rene Descartes." Rene Descartes. 9 Dec. 2002. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://renedescartes.com/>.
-"RENE DESCARTES." Oregon State University. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/descartes.html>.
-Hooker, Richard. "Rene Descartes." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 6 June 1996. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/DESCARTE.HTM>.